6 Things That Go Wrong in Modern Gaming – From a Retro Gamer (Part 1)

Gaming today is very different from what we used to play in the SNES and Genesis times. It really has become on of the mayor participants in the economy, and the industry has grown so much it has been compared to Hollywood the last years. Mainstream, though, has its price, and it is no exception. Metallica suffered it. Why not gaming?

Bad jokes aside, I decided to do a little Top 6 on how i see the modern gaming world. But I have to make first a little confession: I have not played many modern games today. This is based on my few direct experiences, the many times I watched friends play and whatever I hear on news, critics and rants. You may think that I am no authority whatsoever to talk about this. As a matter of fact, I am not. But there is a reason I have not been attracted to retake videogames again. These six reasons are the ones that keep me from trying again.

Second, this is not a Top 6 in the sense that the first one is the most important. What it means is that these six reasons are the main reasons I don’t care about the X-Box, PS3, Wii and other consoles anymore, but there are many other things that keep me from enjoying the new games. Granted there are still some great games left I like to approach to, but these are more and more exceptions, which makes me a bit sad. Without further ado, let’s start this little list.

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1 – New controllers

Today’s controllers are really a mystery to me. There are two types of controllers: standard type and motion sensors. Now, on the standard side, I have the feeling that the controllers are getting too many buttons for my comfort, and even bulkier. Let’s just start with the disaster of the Dreamcast controller, which every time I grabbed felt like holding a huge boulder. Another occasion this happened was when I tried to play Halo on the X-Box. What is the point of it? I know they have fixed it now in the X-Box 360, but it somehow still seems bulky to me. Want a perfect controller? Take the Playstation one. They may have a ton of buttons like the others, but they fit perfectly in my hand.

This one is more like a pet peeve for me, but I think there are already too many buttons on our controllers. I know we want to experience a game as if it was a real life thing, but if I have to find the button to shoot this and then the other button just to jump… and then some others more with combinations, I just can’t seem to handle a game anymore. This problem does not apply to all games, but we will get to this in one of the points later.

The motion thing is another big problem. I know this thing is a hot item now, but after trying out the Wii and the Kinect, I just can’t do anything else but return to the normal controllers anymore. I feel this “hand’s free” style is a nice gimmick and it is perfect for certain games, such as Mario Kart and all the sports games compilation we have been receiving, but even there the greatest flaw comes into light: they are terribly inexact. I remember a survival horror game in which you died just because the control did not respond 100% correctly. One thing is for sure: motion controlling is still not here to stay! Still, game companies abuse that just to force feed us novelty and to tell us that this is, indeed, the best that happened to gaming

2 – DLC

This one is maybe one of the worst moot points. Downloadable content was supposed to be a great opportunity to expand on games and eliminate possible mistakes in those huge games that are coming out. Instead we got all the contrary.

Unlockable content that is already on your disc, incomplete games, forcing to buy to live the “full experience”… all this was the result of a great idea that has gone wrong. Again, not everything is bad, but it seems like the companies are starting to abuse this system. Instead of expanding the games, they seem like a clever marketing ploy to get you to buy add-on after add-on, while not giving you the gaming experience as it should be since the beginning. It was easier in the days where your cartridge had all there was needed to play the game.

The problem here is not that this was something “evil” created by the corporation to exploit the gamer. It is just an idea that lost the way by becoming a money-making machine. It would be great to see the companies holding back on the economic logic and try to give the player more. I do agree to be charged on new content, but it has to be worth it since the beginning, a.k.a, the moment you first purchase the game. Do you hear that MVC?

3 – Lessened game variability

Maybe I am just paranoid. It is very well possible, since I am a retro gamer. But I feel like the games have lost total focus on what was at disposition on the marked. I do understand when you say Modern Warfare, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Halo and so on are the most popular games ever. Shooters and sports games are the easiest to jump into, followed by the typical jump and run platformer and so on. And it is not like all other game genres disappeared. But don’t you think there is too much of one style of game? Seriously, they are so popular, that Black Ops got voted as “best ending ever”. Above a gem like Chrono Trigger?

Maybe it has to do on how easily the shooters and similar games are played. Besides, those who give games like this a great narrative credit may never had played any other game than those. Jus’ sayin’…

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Well, thank you very much for the patience on my top six. As you notice, I only mentioned three, but to avoid this post to be too long, I will cut this into two parts. Next post comes right after this one. Remember, feel free to comment, but I have still three more points to discuss. Fare well then!

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